#virtual brand

[nickgerlich]

Ghost In The Kitchen

It was a trend that was born before COVID, but it took a pandemic to send it into orbit. After all, restaurants were off-limits for in-store dining in many cities and states, and delivery was the only option. It gave restaurants time to experiment with other menu items and even completely different restaurant concepts.

All without doing a thing, other than listing them on delivery apps. I’m talking about the virtual brands that many large chains own, but you don’t know about. You probably won’t find them in the phone book (although they may have a website), and you certainly won’t see any signs on poles or buildings. They exist only in the digital realm.

Certain types of foods—pizza, burgers, and wings—work well in the virtual world, because they travel well. Thus, they are the most common items you will find available on delivery apps. If you have a craving for meat loaf and mashed potatoes, you might just be out of luck.

Here’s how it works. Virtual brands rely on ghost kitchens, which really aren’t ghostly at all, but are located inside the same space as the kitchen in a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Think of it as double- or triple-dipping if you will, but it gives a lot of freedom to chains not only to test new items, but also reach out to different target markets.

Case in point: Would you ever go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner without little kids? Of course not. That’s almost like punishment for being parents. But their ghost kitchen also does business as Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings. That sounds a lot more appealing, doesn’t it?

Denny's is the latest to double down on virtual brands. While they already have The Burger Den and The Meltdown, they are adding Banda Burrito and Franklin Junction. Who wants to go to Denny’s? Anybody? OK, let’s order out from Banda and watch clips of the Rangers putting it to the D-backs last night. Burritos can travel well, too.

See what I mean? At a time when some restaurants are struggling, and especially during certain dayparts, virtual brands open up a lot of new opportunities. Factor in rising labor costs, like in California, and this begins to make a lot of sense.

In some regards this is not much different from major consumer packaged goods manufacturers selling off unutilized capacity to make private label goods for others. In this case, though, the private label is their own, and they are making good use of their kitchen facilities.

I know what you’re thinking. Is it possible that the food available in a virtual brand might be the same thing served in the OG chain? You bet. It could very well be the same burgers, wings, and pizza. But it may also be variants or completely new twists on products, yet are still compatible with the workflow of the kitchen. And, if one of those works well in the virtual world, it could easily be added to the other menu.

None of this would be possible were it not for mobile apps and third-party delivery. While it may hypothetically have been possible for a pizza joint to create a virtual brand and do their own delivery, I can only imagine the hassle of having to change the magnetic signs atop the delivery vehicles, depending on what you were delivering.Partnering with DoorDash and Uber Eats maintains the anonymity.

Which brings up another issue. Is it disingenuous for a chain to masquerade as another brand? Chains are not being fully transparent about this, but then again, these virtual brands may also be the worst-kept secrets in town. They don’t seem to mind talking about it, and haven’t tried to stop news articles from explaining the practice.

An online review for Pasqually’s made me laugh out loud: “Upon further research, I apparently ordered pizza from Chuck E Cheese.” Ha ha ha!

I’m good with all this, though. It’s a win-win for everyone, and, if you really like what you got from Pasqually’s Pizza and Wings, it demonstrates the perceptual power of a brand. Chuck E. Cheese may have been repulsive, but a rose by any other name is…well, Pasqually, I suppose, in this case. And suddenly it’s OK. Then again, maybe not.

Suddenly a burrito sounds pretty good. Make that a breakfast burrito, but by my own hand. Sorry, Denny’s. I can’t wait. I’m hungry now.

Dr “Load It Up” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[conceptrewritten]

Sketches and thumbnails for the Virtual Skelecog trading card shared by Madison on ArtStation.

[kalinara]

(Fall of the House of X #3)

I never get tired of these two.

[starlightseraph]

comrades, don’t kill yourselves.

i know that shit fucking sucks. all of it.

think of all the people in seemingly hopeless situations around the world and throughout history. all the people for whom the world is or was literally ending. all the people who stared down the barrel of a gun or watched as a bomb fell to the ground and who still chose to have hope.

so many people have been in far worse situations or had more immediate tangible threats breathing down their necks.

i’m not saying this to mean that you don’t matter, that your struggle is insignificant.

i only mean that if hope persisted then, hope can persist now. many times before has someone hoped against all hope, fought against all odds, and won.

think of the children who dug through the rubble in hiroshima, in iraq, in korea snd vietnam, and all those who are doing the same in gaza right now. who braved gas and bombs and guns to walk to school in ireland. somewhere in their hearts was a flicker of unlikely hope, one that kept them trying, kept them from falling to the ground silently. we’re not anywhere near that. if they can have even the tiniest amount of hope, then so can you.

the election of one alt-right lunatic over a centre-right genocide funder is not the end of the world. as in, the world will literally keep spinning, the human race will keep existing, and someone somewhere will always be good and worthy of fighting for betterment and even one person like that is cause enough to keep hope alive.

yes, this may bring disasters for women, for queer people, and for the material conditions of many, many within the united states. if only for the abject shameless incoherence of it all.

but there is good. somewhere, in someone. there is hope, as there has always been, from the beginning of time, through plagues that wiped out villages so thoroughly that no one was left to bury the dead, through wars and evil that seemed all encompassing and never-ending.

if you live in the imperial core, i promise that this isn’t the end, and it isn’t as course-of-history altering as you might think. in the aforementioned far worse conditions, which were largely created by the united states itself, people organise, they protest, they laugh. the turn of america ever farther right would have continued regardless of who won. if you truly want change, you cannot achieve it within the us framework. you cannot imagine that voting would save you. it won’t. it may stall, but that’s about it.

the world still spins. human hearts continue beating. we continue to fight and to struggle against a system that made these our only choices, for a revolution, for a better world. it is always possible.

[pirateshelly]

Not to sound like an asshole but I really do think some published authors should have their internet access revoked until they can prove that they understand how human beings actually speak to each other in real life and not twitter

[irbcallmefynn]

I imagine Fynni Buddy is kinda both an idealized future project I'd want to work on and gender goals for my truesona. Lil tiny modifiable thing is like. The peakest of peak gender for me. Unfortunately, sentient AI is quite large. My computer can't handle a file that big...

[annasvinyl]

Rain Dogs (2023-) created by Cash Carraway

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[tippenfunkaport]

I was today years old when I found out the official She-Ra Dreamworks site has a little VR set up of the characters.

[joycrispy]

@angelofthemornings Holy shit you are correct I am INCREDIBLY jealous

[pinkydude]

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[desolationcleo]

Sometimes I'm afraid I'm being annoying by frequently posting eyesandears or that my followers will be sick of it but then I remember there's like 3 people I've bonded with because they were openly and unapologetically obsessed with watcher lore

[nickgerlich]

Dining Virtually

The way we purchase food from restaurants has changed considerably in recent years. The standard dine-in or takeaway, and sometimes a pizza delivered to your doorstep, have been rattled by the arrival of third-party delivery services like Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and more. DoorDash leads the roster with 66% market share.

But it is not just delivery that has changed the landscape, all fueled by mobile apps and digital marketing. Restaurants have added their own twist to the saga with virtual brands. These show up on apps as nearby restaurants, but you would be hard-pressed to find them in real life, because there are no signs announcing their presence.

No, they exist only online and in a kitchen known by a different name.

Many of the big chains are doing it, like Chili’s (Brinker), Hooters, Outback (Bloomin’ Brands), Applebee’s, and Wingstop. Even children’s party palace Chuck E. Cheese does it, with their Pasqually’s Pizza.Imagine learning the next day that the pizza you had delivered last night actually came from Chuck E. Cheese. Yuck.

Denny’s has also ventured into these waters with Banda Burrito, The Melt Down, and The Burger Den. And now it has inked a deal with third-party facilitator The Franklin Group to expand these concepts across 250 franchisees in the Denny’s system.

To be fair, there has been a small shakeout in the virtual brands sector of late, with Red Robin terminating its concepts and sticking solely to its main brand. But that is not unusual in any industry for weaker concepts to be shed, and new ones to replace them.

Virtual brands allow a restaurant chain to make better use of under-utilized facilities, especially during parts of the day in which customer traffic may sag. Having complementary products can help fill out those peaks and valleys.

They also allow restaurants to test new menu items or concepts, as well as serve different markets. But in many cases, the product is pretty much the same as if you went to Hooters or Chili’s. It’s just in a different package.

Some might consider it disingenuous, even misleading, for a restaurant to employ virtual brands. Essentially, it could be considered as smoke and mirrors, and perhaps problematic if different pricing strategies are used for identical products. Imagine if CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies did that. There would be riots.

The range of food items falling into the virtual brands category is somewhat narrow, typically limited to pizzas, burgers, and wings. These travel well with readily available packaging. While the courier services will attempt to deliver just about anything—including menu items that might seep, spill, or swish around en route—it just makes matters easier if there is some standardization.

Virtual brands are not to be confused with ghost kitchens, although there could be an overlap in some instances. Essentially, a ghost kitchen is a commercial-grade kitchen at which multiple brands are prepared on shared facilities. There are variations on this as well, such as the one in Atlanta owned by Inspire Brands, and featuring the brands under its corporate umbrella, including Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John’s, and Sonic Drive-In. DoorDash also owns ghost kitchens, which it typically leases to local mom-and-pop operators, and with whom it has exclusive delivery rights.

And if you are wondering, a food hall is kind of the same concept as a ghost kitchen, with shared food prep facilities among numerous small food service operators. It’s just that it is all visible to consumers.

Meanwhile, virtual brands continue to proliferate, much like craft breweries. They satisfy our urgings for something different. In the case of Denny’s and its burrito, burger, and patty melt brands, the food may be much the same as what you would order off the standard menu, but at least it sounds different.

You just didn’t know it. Until now.

Dr “Virtually Right” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[delicioussaladgalaxy]

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